hibiscus

Our first reaction to make it all better is to water our grass and plants. Do not water unless the ground is close to dry. Watering damaged plants will encourage fungal and bacterial growth, which we want to avoid. Stick your finger in the soil and check for moisture. If it is moist, do not water yet.

You can mow your grass if it is taller and needs to be mowed. Place your mower setting one setting lower; do not cut too short. Cutting too short will add stress to grass that’s already stressed from the freeze.

Do not fertilize your lawn until it is greened up and actively growing. That is when the grass can best absorb the fertilizer in its roots and benefit from the nutrients.

Start removing the dead/damaged portion on your plants. Some examples below are:

If the plant is mushy (tropicals like ginger, Moses in the boat, bird of paradise) trim back to firm stem or to ground. Watch video: “Freeze Remedy: Initial Assessments”
Plants like salvia, plumbago, firecracker plant, and flax lily, trim down to within 4” from ground.
Plants like ixora, duranta, schefflera, hibiscus, and bougainvillea: scratch trunk and trim back to where you see green in the cambium layer of the trunk (maybe to ground).
Philodendron – Watch video: “Freeze Remedy: How To Save Philodendrons”
Palms – Watch video: “Freeze Remedy: Palm Trees”
Citrus– if you scratch a branch and there is no green underneath you can remove it, but no hurry. Keep any suckers that arise from below the graft cut off, they will grow fast but produce sour fruit. If your tree is frozen all the way to the graft, fertilize with Citrus Tone now, May 1st, and September 15th to promote plenty of healthy regrowth from freeze damage.

We know it looks bad but we are here to help you get your landscape back as best we can. We are bringing in new, healthy plants from California, Florida and all over Texas. Our Texas growers learned from the 80’s freezes how to protect plants.

Thank you for your questions on our website, Facebook, Instagram, on the phone, and in person! We will continue creating videos as we see the need and as always, we’re open 7 days a week to help you with your garden!

Wow! Snow and 2 hard freezes has really hurt my lawn. The only thing growing are the weeds. The weather is now warm enough, but not quite sunny enough to spray your Weed b Gon Spray. Weed killer sprays will work their best with sunshine and no rain. Be sure to check the forecast to see if we are sunny for 3-5 days with no rain or your irrigation system.

Wait to fertilize once your grass is completely out of winter dormancy so it will absorb the fertilizer and give you the results you are looking for.

Have you finished pruning? It not, please prune quickly. The spring flush of new growth is about to happen since the weather has warmed up and you don’t want to miss the opportunity for Mother Nature to give you all that new foliage and then just cut it all off. Watch the video below for tips to proper spring pruning.

Once everything is pruned and new growth begins flushing it is time to fertilize. You will fertilize your tropicals and shrubs with Hibiscus Food, Rose Glo or even easier, Gill Lawn and Garden Food when you fertilize your lawn. Timing is key to a beautiful lawn and landscape once again.

-DeAnna

We’re talking with customers everyday who are concerned that they have a fungus on their plants. My first thought is that it would be rare to have fungus this time of year since its so warm, windy, and dry. It’s much more likely to be a bug. Here’s how to identify and control.

Is it white and cottony on the stems and flower buds? If so, you have Mealybugs! They show up in the Summer on Hibiscus, Jatropha, Purslane, Salvia and many more of our plants. You can treat with organic Spinosad soap or Bee Safe 3-in1 Garden Spray – be sure to spray in the evening due to our high temperatures. We recommend spraying the plant once a week for 3 weeks.

Do your leaves look brown and speckled? Sounds and looks like a fungus, but this time of year, its most likely lace bugs on the underside of leaves. They are notorious for attacking Lantana. We’ve even seen some lace bugs on Zinnias and Persimmon trees this Summer. We recommend you cut your plants back one third to half, fertilize and then spray with organic Spinosad soap.

*Scale and sooty mold on a Eucalyptus tree*

Do your Crape Myrtles look black and sooty? This is a tricky one: black sooty mold is a fungus, but it’s caused by insects. Aphids, scale insects, and whitefly leave behind a sticky residue (called “honeydew”) that black sooty mold grows on. If you kill the bug, then the soot goes away. Each of these can be controlled with organic Spinosad soap or Bee Safe 3-in-1 Garden Spray.

-DeAnna

It was nice having some cold weather for Christmas, but some of our plants might disagree.

Covering plants (and keeping them covered) was a big challenge with such high winds. Chances are, we’ve all got some plants that suffered damage. But it’s too early to give up and too soon to prune! Here are a few do’s and don’t do’s right now.

The good news is our forecast looks warm and sunny! Our best advice right now is to get everything uncovered, water well, and let everything enjoy the sunshine. The cold, dry wind dried everything out, so most plants will need water. But use a moisture meter and be sure not to water too much. Some plants wilt and look thirsty just because they’re cold and will perk up as temps rise.

Tender tropical plants like Philodendrons, Gingers, Cannas, and Bananas probably look pretty defeated right now unless you were able to cover them really well. Give tender tropicals at least a week before deciding to cut them back. Woodier tropicals like Bougainvillea and Hibiscus may have some damaged foliage, and will likely be fine, but time will tell. Don’t prune them yet.

Many perennials (such as Salvias, Duranta, Turk’s Cap, Mexican Bush Sage) that were left uncovered should survive. They look bad and they lost a lot of foliage, but they are mostly dormant right now anyway. Our first instinct may be to cut them back now, but it’s too early! You don’t want to prune now and make the plant think it’s time to start coming out of dormancy and putting on new growth. That new growth would be more cold-sensitive. Also, the ugly burned foliage will act as insulation if we get another freeze. If you can tolerate the unsightliness, leave them alone. If not, remove the damaged leaves, but don’t prune. Wait to prune until February when it’s time for plants to start putting on new Spring growth.

Keep in mind, it’s still Winter! Keep your frost cloth and plant covering supplies handy in case we get another cold snap. As always, get in touch if you have questions about specific plants. You can send us pictures to info@gillnursery.com, Facebook, or Instagram. Or give us a call or stop by!

Are you as ready as we are to get outside and garden?! If the Mesquite trees are right, Spring is just around the corner. Here’s our top 6 to focus on in February to kickstart an amazing Spring season.

Check out our February Garden Guide for more tips and remember that trees, shrubs, and perennials can be planted 12 months out of the year! The only difference is the amount of water they need depending on temperatures and wind!

1. Be Ready for Cool Weather and Start Planting!

Keep your eye on the forecast for cold snaps like we’ve had this week, but don’t delay your planting projects. We are already seeing Mesquite trees start to bud up, which almost always means no more hard freezes! As James Gill shared with us at his garden talk last weekend, he’s only seen 2 years out of almost 70 where the Mesquites were wrong on this. That’s a lot more accurate than the weather man!

2. Start Your Veggies!

Beloved tomato growing is rewarding and can be challenging. Planting them early this month is important. Tomatoes need cooler nights to have good fruit set. When you plant tomatoes, be sure to install a tomato cage while they’re small. It can act as a frame for cold weather protection (a bag or blanket) if needed and a frame to support your plants as they grow. You can go ahead and start other favs like squash, cucumbers, beans, & lettuces/greens either by seed or transplants too. Stop by and we’ll help you plan your veggie garden and get you everything you’ll need for a bountiful harvest!

3. Come Learn and Share Houseplant Tips This Saturday!

This Saturday, 2/4/23, we’ll be inside greenhouse here at Gill’s, having an open and interactive discussion about how to care for your indoor plant friends. Join us for Houseplant Jungle with Ori Roldan, Gill’s houseplant connoisseur and assistant buyer. Ori will share lots of care tips and demonstrate easy ways to propagate. Bring your questions or share your plant knowledge as we hang out and talk about everything houseplants. One attendee will win a $100 Gill’s gift card, and we’ll do some other giveaways too!

4. Feed Veggies & Flowers

Blooming plants need food! Veggies are especially heavy feeders – they need to be able to sustain blooming and producing fruit. We recommend mixing in a little Bio-Tone Starter when you plant, which contains mycorrhizal fungi that promotes root growth. Then feed with a good organic, granular plant food like Plant-Tone or Medina Growin Green once a month, and supplement with liquid organic Hasta Gro in between. An easy way to remember this is to set an alarm or calendar event for granular feeding on the 1st of the month, then Hasta Gro on the 15th. These will add nutrients to your plants and keep your soil alive and healthy too.

5. February = Time to Prune!

February is the time to get plants cut back to make way for big spring growth! Most perennials like Lantana, Turk’s Cap, and Salvias need a good pruning back to about 4-8″ – don’t be shy! For any plants with woody stems/branches (like Esperanza and Hibiscus) that look dead or damaged, do the scratch test before pruning. Start up high and scratch with your fingernail, a dime, or the back side of a knife. Don’t scratch too deep. If you see the bright green cambium layer (like the photo), that means it’s still alive! If you see brown/gray when you scratch, keep working your way down the plant until you see green. That will tell you where to cut. As always, contact Gill’s if you’re not sure or have questions about whether or how to prune specific plants.

6. Keep Watch for Winter Insects

Scale is a hard bodied sucking insect that looks like a brown booger stuck to the leaves of plants. Some of their favorites are Burford Holly, Bird of Paradise, Flax Lily, & Irises. They are easily controlled with a spray of organic All Seasons Oil Spray, but it must be done now. The oil spray literally coats and suffocates the the eggs that are waiting for spring to hatch. It’s also good for treating indoor plants that may have scale or spider mites.

Check out our February Garden Guide for more tips!

We’ve been talking to lots of local gardeners who are totally rethinking their landscapes this year. After 2 cold winters in a row, you might be wanting more cold-tolerant plants. Understandable! We think that’s a great idea – start with some good bones, then add color and accents to suit your style. Here are some options to consider.

Small Trees Make Good Focal Points

Crops of blooming ornamental trees like Texas Mountain Laurel, Yaupon Holly, Vitex, and Redbud look fantastic this year. All of these will attract and support birds, as will other interesting native trees like Spiny Hackberry and Kidneywood. They can handle freezes and hot summer temps too. In nature, these are understory trees, so they can tolerate some shade. Look for a spot with good sun to partial shade where you’d like to create a focal point in your landscape. For example, plant a Yaupon Holly and add a birdbath where you can see it from your living room window and you’ll have live Mockingbird TV!

Add Structure with Cold-Hardy Shrubs

You can’t go wrong with cold-hardy, tried and true shrubs like Indian Hawthorn for creating structure in your landscape. Yes, they may still get a little browning on the tips after a freeze, but not severe damage. Shrubs frame the house and give you that classic evergreen look. Other classics like Wax Leaf Ligustrum, Viburnum, Pittosporum, and Dwarf Burford Holly are great for our area.

Bring the Butterflies with Cold-Tolerant Perennial Color

Lantana, Blue Daze, Salvia ‘Love and Wishes’, Salvia ‘Black and Bloom’, Gregg’s Mistflower,
Blackfoot Daisy

Once you’ve got some good structure, you can make your landscape sing with blooming perennials! If you already had plants like Lantana, Salvias, Blue Daze, you’ve probably saw them look rough this Winter, then start to grow back rapidly this Spring. If you cut them back in the wintertime, they’ll look even better in Spring and Summer. Expect most blooming perennials to look their best for 2-3 years, sometimes longer. Keep in mind, if you’re planting to attract pollinators like hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees, plant several of the same plant in a group. For example, plant 6-8 Gregg’s Mistflower together in 1 bed to help butterflies easily find it. Mass-planting like this tends to look really nice to humans too.

Accent with Tropical Plants and Annual Color

Jatropha, Bougainvillea, Mandevilla, Hibiscus

If you’re adventurous, creating an all-tropical landscape can be lush and beautiful. Just know that you’ll likely need to replace plants if we get too cold, or wait a while until they grow back from the roots. Instead, you might consider building the bones of your landscape with cold-tolerant trees, shrubs, and perennials, then accenting with tropical plants. A Bougainvillea splash against a background of evergreen shrubs, or a small area full of philodendrons and Jatropha can create a tropical feel with less risk. And don’t forget about annual flowers! Pots or beds exploding with Zinnias, Begonias, Celosia, and Sweet Potato Vine will look amazing this season, then you get to pull them up and plant something new.

Over the past week, we’ve talked to a lot of customers about brownish and speckled gunk that they’re noticing on their outdoor plants, and sometimes houseplants, all of a sudden. This time of year, it typically means several different types of 1 thing…scale insects! Luckily we’ve got an effective (and eco-friendly) solution.

The photo above is a leaf from a Cast Iron plant that a customer brought in. This one happens to be infested with 2 different types of scale insects. Notice the white specks and the brown gunky spots. There are many different types of scale that go after our common landscape plants like Cast Iron plant, Flax Lily, Hibiscus, Indian Hawthorn, and more.

Have no fear! All-Seasons Horticultural & Dormant Oil Spray is here! Horticultural oil is a mineral oil solution that works by coating the insects and suffocating them. It’s safe and harmless for humans, pets, birds, and other wildlife, but very effective against scale insects and other plant pests.

Scale insects tend to like houseplants too, especially if you’ve had them outside. As you plan to bring patio and houseplants inside for the winter, it’s a great idea to treat them with Horticultural Oil too. Just spray all over and wipe down the leaves. It’ll prevent scale and other pests from hitching a ride inside the house, and it’ll shine up your houseplants beautifully!

The freeze certainly damaged some plants, but chances are a lot of them are still alive and will be just fine, even though they look rough right now. Here are a few tips for assessing damage and moving forward into spring!

The Scratch Test

Use the scratch test for most blooming perennials (like Turk’s Cap, different salvias, and Lantana) and woody plants (like Bougainvillea, Esperanza, and Hibiscus). Using your thumbnail, a dime, or pruners, start at the tips of branches and lightly scratch through just the outer layer of bark. If the cambium layer underneath is brown, keep working your way down the branch. Once you see bright green cambium under the bark, you know the plant is still alive! This also tells you where to prune when the time comes (not yet!). See Harry’s video below for a demonstration.

Don’t Prune Just Yet

Since we still have a chance for more cold weather, your best bet is to wait until mid February to cut back the freeze damaged parts of most plants. The ugly freeze-damaged foliage helps insulate the plant against any additional cold snaps. Plus, pruning signals to the plant that it’s time to start putting on new growth. Since that new growth is the most susceptible to cold damage, you want to wait.

Freeze-damaged Turk’s Cap – still very much alive!!

What About “Mushy” Plants?

If you have succulents or plants like Purple Heart or Elephant Ears that turned to mush after the freeze, go ahead and cut away the mushy parts. Leaving those slimy, mushy parts can encourage fungus. When you cut the mush away, you can apply Dusting Sulphur to help seal the wound and prevent fungus. Even a lot of these plants are expected to come back! Time will tell.

Click to Watch – How to do the Scratch Test!